Chapter 22 (1/2)

“So you saw it”

Melby said with a forlorn look

“……Was that bad?”

“No I did say to look as much as you like”

Melby flutters over to the crystal

“This is a story froo An evil warlock attacked this hamlet”

“An evil warlock?”

“Yes I had only just been born at the time so I don’t know the details However, Master freed us and fought the evil warlock”

But, Melby continues,

“……Having taken refuge, aited for a ht but contact fro aited We timidly returned to the hamlet, and then――”

At that point, their “Master” was already in the state she is now

“If you saw her status, then you should understand Time has stopped for Master inside the crystal No, this is just a guess, but I think that Master used [space-Tiic] to stop her own time the moment she was imprisoned inside the crystal

Indeed, it doesn’t appear likely for the being who imprisoned their “Master” to purposely stop time for her

Their “Master” probably had time stop as a last resort to protect herself

“So, this crystal can’t be undone?”

“……I can’t At least, I can’t do it with ic was used to make this crystal―― this separation barrier”

Melby looks doith a gloomy face

“The crystal itself isn’t that solid On the contrary, it’s rather brittle”

Handingit to whittle at the crystal

Or rather, just where did she produce that from just now?

“That is a diic tool that was made to shave down the separation barrier ――Now then”

Just like Melby toldat the crystal with the chisel

Sile scratch

This ti the chisel’s blade doith force

There was a faint snap and a thin flake separated from the crystal and fell down

I picked up the shaving

It was as large as a smartphone, but it was only around 1 millimetre thick

The edge looked sharp enough to cut er

“This is……?”

“Paring it once produces a flake like that No ic or force you put in,that flake will be all that separates fro barrier”

I felt as though my mana had barely been absorbed

When I check with [Appraisal], I saw that my MP had decreased by 1

So it only consu 1 millimetre thick

“Even in the past, there have been humans who have come all the way here There were even people who have tried to release the seal But――”

Even those people who had been patiently shaving away at the surface of the crystal in the beginning beca for several months

“Nevertheless, the crystal’s thickness is about 1 h the shaved pieces may be thin, you should reach the centre after a thousand tied one way or another”

“――It regenerates”

“Eh?”

“The crystal regenerates ――Look”

The chipped part glows dimly

After the light disappeared――as expected, the crystal returned to its original state

You can’t tell if you don’t look closely, but the part that was chipped off seems to have returned to its former thickness

“……I see, it’s impossible with this”

No o is a thin shaving

And that shaving is replenished from the vicinity of the chipped section

If it was a simple hard barrier then I could just break it with further strength

I could hope for such

However, whilst this can be whittled down, I definitely can’t whittle through it

This would be quite hard on the mentality of anyone who tried to dispel the barrier

I can see the terrible personality of the guy who created this barrier, it’s an extremely tricky barrier

“There have also been several ic at it consecutively, but it seeether, they are regarded as a single attack altogether――even when all the le sliver separates from the crystal”

In other words, it can only be steadily shaved down

“Even so, we know that the regeneration of the shaved part isn’t quite perfect When we dig through approxiht’s worth ―the ahtly after that”

Approxihly 10 centimeters

If all the shavings are of constant thickness, that’s 100 pieces

However, if one wants to ensure that the width is enough for the pioneer elf feh, they would desire a surface area of about 10 smartphones lined up both vertically and horizontally, and would require the work of digging 100 times for each 1 millimetre

For each millimetre, 100 sections need to be shaved 100 times, which makes it 10, 000 times in total

……Wait?

“Wouldn’t it be a little easier if you dug a tunnel hich the person inside could pass through by crouching, and only shave as wide as the girth of the person inside?”

“That is no good

It seems that the mechanics of this separation barrier are such that it supple tunnel to the inside, it closes it off immediately

The slight delaying of the regeneration is when the barrier is uniformly shaved down on this side”

“How ht bit?”

“……About as ”

“So at that pace, you would only be able to progress 1 ”

With that pace, they would need a thousand days to dispel the seal

To continue working when you only progress 1 millimetre per day――it’s here you would be unable to bear it before reaching the end, even if you brought along an ascetic monk from India or thereabouts

“If you raised your daily pace……”

“We needed to shave it down ten thousand tih?

Faeries are able to absorb e that much, but normally one’s mana would run out before then”

If 3 seconds are needed every time, that would be 30, 000 seconds = 500 minutes = 83 hours

Indeed, it’s close to the limit of what one can do in a day

No, it has completely surpassed the limit

A sane hu off crystal shavings nonstop for 8 hours a day

Moreover, the crystal returns to 99 of hoas before, the very next day

That would drive anyone crazy

Furthermore, the worker would need to have over 10, 000 MP, or have high mana recovery like the faeries

Such people would be on the sareat warlocks, but there’s no way that such great warlocks would waste a colossal amount of their time on this insane work

“If you worked in shi+fts……”

“I don’t knoorks, but the regeneration speeds up when several people’s ether”

So in regards to the crystal being shaved down, only one person can do it at a time

“By the hat’s the longest record so far?”

“……7 months

It was an ascetic elf monk who possessed a vast mana pool because they carried the divine protection of the God of ic, Attiera

I think it was because they were continuously doing sier with one of the shavings

The injury itself was just a co just piled up

Spurred on by that, they started rae cry

The hamlet was full of faeries back then so ere able to cure their frenzied state, but when they recovered their sanity, that asceticto start from scratch……”

That was a pity

“That’s why, by no means should you try to dispel Master’s seal either To have someone be driven insane for her own sake, Master wouldn’t be pleased Even though I very much wish to see Master, ――”

“――Well, just let ive it a try for now”

“I can’t ask a stranger to do such a thing……or rather, you’re actually doing it!? Y-you, haven’t you been listening to what I’ve been saying?”

I proan work

I hit and chip away at the crystal using the chisel Melby gave me

The crystal is whittled away along with the snapping sound of splitting ice

The thickness was the same as before

To optith

I poke it lightly This is no good

I strike at it with the force from my elbow to the tip This was a success

Reducing the force slightly, I hit it like a hammer Yup, success

Further reducingon a door Failure

I strengthen the knock Success

Well then, let’s ith this degree of power

Next, I investigate the interval between hits

Hit, separate, iain Failure

Hit, separate, hit after 5 seconds Success

Hit, separate, hit after 3 seconds Success

Hit, separate, hit after 1 seconds Failure

Hit, separate, hit after 2 seconds Success

Hit, separate, hit after 15 seconds Success

Hit, separate, hit after 12 seconds Failure

Hit, separate, hit after 14 seconds Success

Hit, separate, hit after 13 seconds Failure

In conclusion, I should hit it with a 14 second (estimated) interval as a rule

Now that I know that, the task is simple

Using the chisel, I strike the crystal with a 14 second interval and the force of a strong knock

Snap, snap, snap……I chip away at the crystal with a set rhythm

“Y-you……?”

Melby watches me work in astonishment

Even after that, I swing the chisel countless times

Before I knew it, the shaved fragments had piled up into a mound on the floor of the cavern

Hone

Or so I thought, but Melby co tea set in her hands

“Don’t strain yourself too much, okay? It’s already been 3 hours!”

Speaking of which, the hand holding the chisel is a little bit sore

There’s no fatigue, but though it may be small, there is still the burden of the recoil fro the crystal

“Let me have a look ――Oh spirit of life ells in children, wield your power and invigorate this child’s body”

Following Melby’s words, my arm is shrouded in a pale radiance and the pain in my arm vanishes

“Ohh!”

“This is [Spirit Magic] Just then, I called upon the spirit of life that elling inside your body to aid your recovery”